One of the North Shore's most venerable real estate firms closes

Wednesday

Dec 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2008 at 10:01 PM

It will be a New Year, and with it will come more local economic turmoil, as one of the biggest, longest standing real estate companies on the North Shore will close its doors this week amid a poor economy and an unprecedented, industry-wide decline in sales.

Nikki Gamer

It will be a New Year, and with it will come more local economic turmoil, as one of the biggest, longest standing real estate companies on the North Shore will close its doors this week amid a poor economy and an unprecedented, industry-wide decline in sales.

Carlson GMAC Real Estate, in Beverly is one of five company-owned North Shore GMAC offices that will shut down. Offices in Marblehead, Gloucester, Natick and Newburyport will also close. According to the New England-based company’s official statement regarding the closures, about two dozen employees will be affected, along with about 200 sales associates.

“I think this was precipitated by bad management,” said longtime Marblehead resident Richard Carlson, who started the company in 1968, yet sold it, first to Better Homes and Gardens and later to GMAC, about 30 years later, in order to retire.

When he left, Carlson had 51 offices throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and close to 1,500 employees. It was a private, family-run business.

Yet after changing hands, the number of Carlson offices has dwindled. Just last December, Carlson GMAC closed its Woburn-based headquarters, shutting down more than 10 offices and laying off 50 employees. This year, GMAC Carlson was sold to Canada-based Brookfield Property Services.

Carlson called the Marblehead closure shocking.

“It doesn’t feel good. You spend most of your working life building a company, and in 10 years they virtually destroy it,” he said. “They have no sensitivity toward the people. They ran it corporately, and squeezed and squeezed.”

According to the GMAC statement, the closures are a result of the ongoing economic downturn and a continued housing slump.

“GMAC Real Estate is fully committed to ensuring a seamless transition for its sales associates, employees and customers,” stated the company.

Others place more of the blame on the company.

Sean Gildea, son of founder Richard Carlson among them.

Gildea worked for his father’s former company before moving to competitor William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage, and Insurance Co., whose local office is just across the street from GMAC’s Marblehead office.

“Companies that carried a lot of debt are being forced to consolidate,” said Gail Tarmey, team leader/branch manager, for the Keller Williams at 500 Cummings Center, Suite 1550.

Tarmey’s office will be adding seven former Carlson Realtors, bring the number of Realtors to 117.

Gildea, who manages the Raveis office, has worked in the real estate business for more than 20 years. He said the closures are indicative of private equity firms and their “thirst” for profits. He said things within the industry have changed dramatically over the last 10 years.

“Real estate is a very local business and you can’t implement a large business model over such a unique industry,” Gildea said.

Tarmey, who’s been in real estate since 1986, said she had to go back to the ‘80s and early ‘90s to find a comparably bad market.

“This is a cycle in the real estate market,” said Tarmey. “It will turn around. It always has. A house has to be priced right today to sell. When it becomes a buyer’s market people have to be realistic.”

Dan Mac Alpine contributed to this story.

Beverly Citizen

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